Maternal Health

Rebecca Ejifoma who carried out investigation on the use of family planning by Nigerian couples, reports that the overall acceptance is still below expectations in the country.

Ruth and her children

Nigeria has made progress in improving the use of contraceptives over the past decades. However, there is room for improvement even in the face of longstanding myths and misconceptions concerning their use.

Worried by stock-out of contraceptive commodities and consumables, experts at the Performance Monitoring and Accountability (PMA) 2020, a recent family planning (FP) review, advocated increased funding for FP by state governments.

In view of high incidence of unplanned pregnancies, Funmi Olaolorun, the Co-Principal Investigator, PMA 2020, stressed that increased funding by state governments would tackle stock-out of contraceptive commodities and consumables in many states.

Rural women in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Zamfara states have taken a deeper sigh of relief following a decision by their respective governments to train 6,500 female health workers to man healthcare facilities in different communities across the five states.

The development was sequel to a partnership between Women for Health (W4H), a UKaid funded nongovernmental organization and the five state governments, Kano Chronicle, observed.

Uneducated women are more likely to die during pregnancy or child birth, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has said.

Emeritus Professor Nimi Dimkpa Briggs said, while delivering the first annual lecture of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), a pregnant woman who stayed in a slum and also not properly educated was more likely to lose her baby because of lack of education.

Annually, for every 100,000 live births in Nigeria, 630 women die. While the country has a maternal death rate second only to India, medical and social reasons are usually touted as the cause for these deaths rather than preventable factors such as poorly equipped health facilities and negligence on the part of healthcare professionals; hence, the consideration of such deaths as simply health issues rather than a violation of fundamental human rights such as rights to life and family life.

Madamai is a village in Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The community, located on a rocky terrain, is some three hours away from Kaduna main town; the community lacks healthcare centre, good road, schools and portable drinking water.

The journey to Madamai community which should ordinarily be a five minutes’ drive takes 20 to 25 minutes because of the bad roads which the residents say contributes to the death of many women in the area, especially those in labour.

n a bid to stem maternal mortality rate, the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Official, COWLSO, has donated an Intensive Care Unit, ICU to the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital and Neo-natal hearing screening equipment to four General Hospitals in the state.

The General Hospitals are Gbagada, Ifako-Ijaiye, Ikorodu and Badagry. The equipment were donated on Wednesday at the officials commissioning of the ICU at the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital on Lagos Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

Development Communications (DEVCOMS) Netowork has charged media gatekeeprs to produce news contents that demand accountability in the maternal health concerns in Lagos state and Nigeria in it's one-day Immersion Review and Investigative reporting Guidance meeting in Lagos.